This is a story about eternal death and love.
A boy and a girl who grew up together as childhood friends—close enough to talk about anything. Yet just as their friendship was about to sublimate and transform into something else, the girl rejected the boy who had been steadily pouring out his feelings.
"…Yeah. I guess… it still won't work."
She said it with a smile as she turned him down.
"Forget about me as soon as you can, and go find someone who suits you better."
Even after receiving such an answer, the boy continued living his life as usual—school, home, meals, following the same three-point routine day after day, occasionally stopping by the arcade the two of them used to visit together.
"He hasn't given up on you. That's troublesome. At this rate, it'll be too late."
Someone complained to the girl like that, and she merely returned a gentle smile.
"It's fine. He just needs a bit more time to come to terms with it."
The girl silently accompanied the taciturn boy through everything they had long grown accustomed to—the by-the-book commute, the mind-numbingly boring club activities, the tense days of exam preparation—and the first anniversary of the girl's accidental death.
Standing before the gravestone with flowers in his hands, the boy lowered his eyes and once again poured his heart out to the portrait carved into stone. What he would never realize, however, was that the girl was standing right behind him, never having gone far.
"Honestly… you're just the kind of guy I can't stop worrying about. That's why I can't leave."
Naturally, those feelings would never reach the boy, his eyes damp with tears.
"Please forget me, and find someone who can make you smile again."
That, in broad strokes, was the plot of the short story Narumi had written.
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: Hey, hey, I thought you were just talking big… you actually went and wrote it?!]
In the rr14 chat window, the burly Ruga-tribe guy didn't bother hiding his disbelief.
[I-Want-to-Eat-Your-Ahoge: Posted it at noon. If you're interested, go take a look.]
Narumi replied casually while idling in the main city, then switched over to the forum homepage and started furiously refreshing the thread.
The numbers were rising at a visible pace, but even after an entire afternoon, the exposure was only a few hundred views, with just a handful of comments.
Of course, for his first time posting on a forum like this, that was already enough to be somewhat comforting—after all, every beginning is hard.
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: I'm reading it, I'm reading it. Don't rush me.]
The Ruga guy made an "annoyed" motion, then stayed completely still in the main city—apparently the player had tabbed out of the game to read the forum post.
After waiting idly for over ten minutes and even starting to burn stamina in a mobile game, Narumi noticed new text pop up in the chat.
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: You brat… are you seriously a newbie? This prose and structure don't look like beginner-level at all. I don't buy it.]
[I-Want-to-Eat-Your-Ahoge: Why would I lie to you? I stayed up all night writing it.]
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: All night… and you produced something this well-structured…? Don't tell me you're an alt account of some old veteran who pigeons all the time? Or are all rookies just monsters now?]
[I-Want-to-Eat-Your-Ahoge: Stop, stop. No assassinating praise allowed.]
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: Hey, remember what I said before? That if your novel took off, I'd help you find an illustrator?]
That… did sound vaguely familiar.
[I-Want-to-Eat-Your-Ahoge: Uh, are you trying to sell me something now?]
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: We've been playing together this long—do I look like that kind of guy?! I told you, I'd find you an illustrator for free. Even free stuff isn't good enough for you?!]
The Ruga guy beat his chest and stomped his feet; the player sent an angry emote along with it.
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: Sure, your novel isn't at "viral hit" levels yet, but all it needs is a little traffic push. With writing quality that passes, the views will multiply dozens of times. And it's a childhood-friend story too… even if it's a tragic BE, no homewrecker "sudden arrival" type, just pure love focused on the two of them—that's eternal god-tier material…! On that alone, I'm helping you for sure!]
For some reason, this guy always got especially fired up whenever the childhood-friend vs. homewrecker faction war came up.
[Childhood-Friend-Supremacy: Besides, more exposure is always good. This isn't an era where good wine doesn't fear deep alleys. I can't stand seeing good works buried in some forum corner—heh. You just sit tight at home and wait for good news!]
After sending that message, the Ruga guy's avatar vanished from the main city crystal, and [Childhood-Friend-Supremacy] switched to offline in Narumi's friend list.
The curly-haired boy blinked. He honestly hadn't expected things to develop like this—he'd assumed the guy was just talking big before.
"Wait, so there really are people this kind-hearted in this era? I thought the internet was supposed to be full of trolls crawling in the dark, tearing everything apart with passion."
Even so, Narumi Tōru maintained a cautious, half-believing attitude toward the promise. Believing everything blindly would only turn him into an easy-to-scam naïve fool.
After running a few more dungeons in rr14, he reluctantly logged out around dinner time. He was just about to close all background programs and start cooking when he noticed a small red dot appear in his forum private messages—and froze his mouse hand.
[Kashiwagi Eri: Hello. I was recommended your work by a friend and had the chance to read it. I was deeply moved by the delicate portrayal. No matter what, I would like to visualize this touching story through illustrations and present it to more readers—may I have your permission?]
Kashiwagi Eri… the name felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
After racking his brain with no result, Narumi gave up and opened a new tab, typing "Kashiwagi Eri" into the search bar.
The flood of information—and black-and-white manga images that definitely required censor bars—instantly overwhelmed his brain, causing it to short-circuit.
"A famous r, r/18 manga artist… wants to make fanart of my novel…?"
Only then did Narumi remember that the name Kashiwagi Eri often appeared in the adult manga section tucked away in bookstore corners—after all, opportunities for him to sneak into that section while avoiding the shop owner's kindly-but-concerning gaze were few and far between.
That online buddy was really that powerful? He even managed to get Kashiwagi Eri—one of the industry's top-tier figures?
Faced with a doujin request from an ero-manga artist, Narumi Tōru—the author of a pure-love BE written by a high schooler—hesitated for exactly zero seconds—and accepted.
After all, even a second of hesitation would be disrespectful to Kashiwagi-sensei's professional ability—and to a once-in-a-lifetime blessing that had practically fallen from the sky.